Dawn of New Generation Beta !!!

As we wish Happy New Year to all our family and friends, I wanted to share an interesting article on the internet and wanted to share the Generation of Humans. We are now in Technologically Integrated Generation

https://lnkd.in/gdfe_ZHN

Lets get Ready 2024 !!!

New Year Day Food Guide

Breakfast:

Karaisutir Kochuri, Aloor Dom, and Nolen Gurer Rosogolla.

Lunch:

Briyani (Chicken / Mutton) of your choice supported by an opposite side dish to accompany the Briyani and Boondi raita

e.g. Mutton biryani with chicken bharta (my favorite)

Dinner:

Plain Roti with Mixed vegetables. 

Restart

It's been a long time since I have blogged so on the eve of 1st day of the new year let's Restart!

A blog is where a blogger pens down his/her thoughts for the world to read. I have been several things teacher, security person, motivator, team player, and foodie. Hopefully, I will touch on these topics this year from time to time.

A Happy New Year to all my Blog readers. 

A Poem I will remember : ― Merrit Malloy

 

“When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give to them
What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.

Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live in your eyes
And not on your mind.

You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands
By letting
Bodies touch bodies
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.

Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away”

― Merrit Malloy

A Great Article on New Year Resolutions

 Dear Reader

Whenever I come across a good article, I try to also give it for the readers. This article is writen by Matt Gavin on 5 New Year Resolutions:

Please go over the article in the link below yoy would really want to read it couple of times:

https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/new-years-resolution-ideas?utm_campaign=blog&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR28ULURhwPMYRVgQ3mEBZ2CcX1EsFfIShiP7VUl3LT_F4pBkOwAk7Gv-oc

Keep on Trying till you succeed !!!

As the title suggest its true very true.

I have a small story. During the lockdown we were not having any food from outside but felt like having some. So my wife cooked delicius dishes and I also started to try my hand in cooking. I started watching cooking vides online and tried to implement them. Some came out really well some had to modified to our tast with help of my better half and some did fail. 

My biggest failure was Briyani. And this dish being my favourite I was not to loose the battle. The first time I tried Veg-Briyani I used  briyani masala and word to word as was said in the cooking video but it was not our liking. 

It made me determined to try it again though it took some time to do it I tried making Egg-Briyani. This time I didt use the briyani masala and I was determined to make everything from scratch. Well due to my error while giving the last 'Dum' I smookedd the briyani little more than required which was not to my liking. 

Now it made me more determined to cook briyani. This time I tried Shrimp Briyani and Woola it turned out exactly as I planned with help of my Wife and a new pressure cooker I was able to get what I wanted. My next project Chicken Briyani. 

Lockdown and Unlock - 'New Normal'

Blogging after a long time. 

All of India remember 22nd March 2020 : Everyone was very happy. Nothing to do Nothing to worry it's Janata Carfew !!! Many people enjoyed the day. Few people thoght what is coming next. 

Then came the announcement of 24 March 2020, Phase 1 Nationwide Lockdown for 21 days as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic. It was followed by subsequent Lockdown with limitations of movements. Phase 2 (15th April – 3rd May), Phase 3 (4th May – 17th May), Phase 4 (18th May – 31st May). 

I don't want to go towards decision weather it was correct / wrong but my personal opinion Phase wise Lockdowns should have been continued till atleast 31st August 2020.

But as it stands after Phase 4 Lockdown we got phase wise Unlock. Unlock 1.0 (1st June – 30th June), Unlock 2.0 (1st July – 31st July), Unlock 3.0 (1st August – 31st August), Unlock 4.0 (1st September -30th September), Unlock 5.0 (1st October - 31st October). All these Unlock was done to easy the Economic Impact, effect on Migrant workers, to make sure there is proper Food supply chain maitained. 

Iunderstand very well that Unlock was very much essential to bring the normalcy back into the economy. So lets Unlock and drive our country towrds a better tomorrow.

"Shake the Tree" Strategy

When we start a new projects or want to revamp a existing project we follow the "Shake the Tree" strategy. People who have been working in your organization who do not change who doesn't like change - but change is what you need to do you can apply this strategy. 

• Step 1: Create a state of restlessness and chaos
• Step 2: People who do not like change will resist it, try to show you are with them but in reality try to create a scenario where they leave your organization
• Step 3: There might be people who have underwent similar exercise - change their vertical. 

Keep in mind when you are trying to upgrade or improve the working environment of your organization and implementing new methodology its always good to have seniors with you who can work with you, a group of people who are not people person will fall and hence you will have an organization where employee turnover can increase. A process has to be created to help transition process. However it can cause a whole mess of work trying to determine what it is the process is doing, what Business Rules it was supposed to be following and are those rules still applicable today. 

Changing Scenario of Branding & Marketing in Indian Trains

We have all traveled on trains some point of time - but have you taken the time to look the way Branding and Marketing has been changing from the 90's to 21's. You will be amazed to see how the Authorized Professional i.e. Vendors sell varieties of products and services and the kind marketing strategies they use to attract customers.  

When I was a kid, I had seen vendors selling Tea the famous calling "chai garam chai". But now its Tea along with Biscuit and if you need to drink water before having the tea its also available (with a price tag). That's improvisation. Variations of Tea / Coffee available - Milk Tea, Masala Tea, Raw Tea and even Green Tea oh! forgot with or without sugar (can't say without sugar but comparatively less sugar).

"Jhal Muri" is one more items whose improvisation has happened from paper packets to disposable bowls and  spoons. Same items in better packaging but higher price. But there always remains a question about the taste which is better ?

Suppose you are going on a trip and you have forgot to carry your Power Bank for your Mobile phone don't worry now days there are Professional Vendors who sell Power Banks, Selfi Sticks, Emergency Lamp and suppose suddenly you see the weather has turned bad you can even buy Umbrella. 

Amazon gives you 100% return guarantee now days Vendors in train sell that if you don't like the product you buy you don't have to pay. That's you never seen before.

Reader please understand I am talking about a 4 hour journey which I frequently take between Kolkata and Berhampore, Murshidabad.

Do comment on Innovative selling strategies you have come across.     

The Reliance Jio camel is inside the Tent

Got this article while browsing the internet. I felt every once should know. 

The Reliance Jio camel is inside the tent

You know the fable. It’s winter. It’s the desert. Enter a camel, who walks up to an Arab's tent and asks to be let in. The Arab permits the camel to stick its nose in. The camel pushes his luck. One leg; another. Until the camel is completely inside and refuses to leave.

Good story.

So let’s talk about what Reliance Jio did last week.

Jio announced that it would charge its users Rs 0.06 ($ 0.0008) per minute for outgoing voice calls made to other networks. This, after Jio had promised that voice calls would always be free on its network.

Why is this a big deal? And what does it mean?

I’ll explain. But first, a quick history of India’s telecom market in five points.

Just ten years ago, India’s telecom market was crowded. There were nearly 10-11 players at any point—all jockeying for dominance. There were regional players as well. Aircel in Tamil Nadu. Orange in Mumbai. And so on.

But soon, the market consolidated. Some merged. Others went bankrupt. The Wikipedia entry for defunct mobile operators in India looks like it’s written by George RR Martin. All this in the last ten years.

Telecom in India is a brutal, expensive business. For three reasons.

First you need to build towers across the length and breadth of an unforgiving landscape.

Then you need to buy spectrum—among the most expensive anywhere in the world.

Finally, to make your money back, you need to figure out a way to get millions of Indians, a country with a nominal per capita income that’s twice the price of an iPhone 11 Pro, to buy phones.

To succeed, you need a combination of enormous capital, overarching political influence and a willingness to grind it out for the long-term.

So, in 2016, Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man entered the market with Reliance Jio. To signal his intent, Jio launched with absurd offers. You want a phone? Take it for free. Outgoing calls? Free. Data prices? Next to nothing. Several of these were guaranteed to be free for life.

The market responded. Jio just exploded. Customers migrated to Jio from other networks in droves. The incumbents protested—they claimed the pricing was predatory, that this wasn’t fair, and in order to compete, dropped their prices as well. This made India the country with the cheapest mobile data in the world.

But our story isn’t really about Jio.

It’s about India’s telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), and the concessions it made to Jio.

And how it’s finally realising, perhaps too late, that things need to be reined in.

The nose

Reliance Jio’s entry to the telecom market was fairly controversial. In the 2010 spectrum auction, when incumbents like Airtel and Vodafone were locked in a bidding war for 2G spectrum, a small firm called Infotel Limited successfully bid for rights to broadband across India by paying 5,000 times its net worth.

Infotel was a front for Reliance. And one day after it bid and won the license, it was acquired by Reliance. As The Caravan reported in their stunning story titled ‘How Reliance Jio is monopolising the telecom sector’,

“Mukesh Ambani established his position within the telecom industry by acquiring a small, obscure firm that had won an auction for national wireless spectrum one day earlier. To win, the firm bid roughly a hundred times what it was worth. According to the spectrum licence, the firm was only permitted to provide internet service. But three years later, the government allowed that firm, by then renamed Jio, to upgrade to a “full mobility” licence and offer every kind of cellular service for a fraction of what its full-mobility licences should have cost.”

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in a draft report to the Department of Telecom, suggested that the spectrum allocation be cancelled, accused Jio of rigging the auction, and estimated that Reliance Jio gained an unfair advantage of approximately Rs 22,842 crore ($3.3 Bn).

Not everyone agreed. Not Reliance.

But especially, not Trai.

The neck

Here’s a question.

How many customers did Reliance Jio have the day before it officially launched?

If you said zero. You’d be wrong. The answer is close to 2 million subscribers.

Wait. How?

Just before launch, Reliance Jio claimed that it was running a ‘test trial’ - to understand how its service worked, iron out kinks, etc. And because the regulations were helpfully opaque about the limitations on a test trial, Jio went all-out. Typically, test trials are for a period of 90 days. Jio ran it for nearly three times as long.

As the Bloomberg Quint reported in 2016,

The current regulations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India are silent on the scope of trials that can be undertaken by a new entrant in the industry. The Reliance Jio test phase is a full-fledged commercial launch in the garb of testing, says Rajan Mathews, Director General Cellular Operators Association of India in an interview with BloombergQuint.

Jio refutes the charge and accuses the COAI of favouring the incumbents.

The torso

Now is where it gets fun.

Because we get into something called Points of Interconnect (POI).

A point of interconnect is where two different networks are physically connected to each other. Say between Airtel and Jio. Or Vodafone and Airtel. Points of Interconnect are what ensure that calls made by one operator’s customer end up reaching another operator’s.

I could go on, but quite honestly, Rohin did a fantastic story called ‘The Interconnect Wars’ back in 2016, and because he's my boss, I’m going to try to impress him by reprinting what he wrote back then.

Telecom regulators around the world, including TRAI in India, pay special attention to POIs because of their criticality to telecom networks and competition.

…Jio’s Achilles Heel was the fact that its customers still need to make voice calls. And those calls need to land on the incumbent’s voice-based networks.

Which require POIs.

As per law, 0.5% are the number of call drops that are tolerable on POIs. But as Jio started adding more and more users to its network in what it called a “test” phase, its call failures started climbing to anywhere between 50-80% for calls made to the three largest incumbent operators.

And thus began an elaborate, high-stakes game of who-blinks-first between Jio and the incumbents, with regulations being the weapon of choice.

When Jio started complaining earlier this year that it didn’t have enough POIs for its users to make calls to incumbent networks, the incumbents said Jio was only conducting tests. So why did it need so many POIs? They said they weren’t obliged to provide POIs en-masse to any non-commercial network.

As call failures climbed on Jio’s network, it went and complained to Trai, claiming it was being held back by these incumbents, and that this was anti-competitive.

Trai looked at this, and agreed.

It recommended a fine of Rs 3,050 crore ($458 million) on Airtel, Idea and Vodafone.

Woah.

The legs

There’s another aspect to Points of Interconnect. And that’s a financial transaction. If you make a call from one operator to another, the first operator has to pay the second an additional charge for every minute for every call. This is set by Trai.

This is called Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC).

This is important.

Fundamentally, it’s a sound idea. It’s supposed to compensate the receiving operator for the infrastructure setup and POIs needed to be maintained to receive a call from another operator. Before Jio came along, this wasn’t a big deal because the market was symmetric and whatever big players paid one another largely evened out.

But then Jio came along and said that all outgoing calls were free. For life.

And look what happened.

This is the ratio of incoming and outgoing calls for Airtel.

This is Vodafone Idea.

Now look at Jio.

Basically, this is what happened.

Since Jio made outgoing calls free, it skewed the market. Now, Jio’s customers were the ones calling everyone else.

This skew enormously benefits Airtel and Vodafone, who are net receivers of IUC. Jio claims to have paid nearly Rs 13,500 crore ($2 Bn) as IUC over the last three years.

In 2017, Trai helpfully reduced the IUC charge from Rs 0.14 a minute to 0.06 a minute. It also signalled its intention to remove the IUC altogether by 2020. Airtel and Vodafone cried foul. To little avail.

So what happened as a result of these regulations?

Lots.

First, the telecom market consolidated. Two of the biggest telcos, Idea and Vodafone, merged in 2018. This left the market with four players. Airtel. Vodafone Idea. Jio. And the state-run BSNL.

Second, debt climbed on Airtel and Vodafone’s balance sheets. In an effort to match Jio’s prices, both Airtel and Vodafone accumulated debt of over Rs 1,06,000 crore (~$15 Bn) and nearly Rs 1,15,000 crore ($17 Bn), respectively.

Third, Vodafone Idea started to have problems. Vodafone Idea, struggling with a terrible merger, and rising costs, is losing nearly 10% of its subscriber base every quarter. Its share price used to be Rs 24 a year ago. Now it trades at Rs 5.

Fourth, BSNL, the other telecom network, is struggling to stay afloat. It hasn’t paid salaries to employees in months. And is begging states not to cut electricity to its offices due to unpaid bills.

Fifth, in August, Jio became the number one mobile operator by revenue market share.

The camel was inside the tent.

And wanted more.

Trai’s walkback

Trai, realising that things have gone too far, tried to scale back. A telecom market of sixteen is down to four. And there's a non-zero chance of four becoming two if the current state of affairs continue. If that happens, we enter complicated territory. A market of two is a duopoly, and Trai will end up losing what little leverage it has. Clamor for subsidies and tax-cuts will get louder. Also, how does one conduct a spectrum auction with two players? Plus, wireless connectivity is what the entire future of Digital India depends on. Not to mention UPI. And e-commerce.  The fallout will be massive.

The stakes couldn't be higher.

So what did Trai do?

A few weeks back, it released a consultation paper where it asked the question: Should the proposal to do away with IUC be postponed beyond 2020?

Jio said, fine. If you decide to renege on your commitment, I’ll just charge my customers for it.

And they’ll know it’s all because of you.

Just look at their communication

It’s called an IUC top-up. And it’s levied only until Trai abolishes IUC. Jio is clear about this.

The question is, what next?

I suppose we’ll find out 😉

The Ken

Most In-Demand MBA Specializations

This article has been published in Princeton Review: https://www.princetonreview.com/business-school-advice/popular-mba-specializations

For more in depth reading please go to the above link:

Are you a prospective business student looking to apply to specialized MBA programs? Take a look at some of the most popular specialized MBA programs—and where they might lead. Browse MBA programs by specialization.

1. General Management:

Of all the specialized MBA programs, General Management is consistently one of the most popular. General management students will learn a variety of management skills and perspectives that can be applied to organizations in any industry, from human resources and marketing to systems and UX. 

2. International Management

A specialized MBA in International Management is perfect for business students who intend or aspire to work abroad or at multi-national companies post-graduation. You'll learn critical skills—finance, strategy, operations, etc.—in an international context, preparing you to do business with people and organizations all over the world. 

3. Strategy

Another popular specialized MBA program, Strategy offers insight into how successful business decisions are made; you'll learn about business development, consulting, risk management, and planning—skills applicable across industries. 

4. Consulting

Management consulting is one of the most sought-after skills in the business world. A specialized MBA in Consulting will empower business students to enter a lucrative industry post-graduation, helping clients manage their companies more successfully.

5. Finance Leadership

For business students who prefer to focus on finance, a specialized MBA in Finance Leadership could be a great choice. Many high-level bankers, financial controllers, chief financial officers, and finance managers specialized in finance. You'll study statistics, analytics, accounting, and more. 

6. Entrepreneurship

Need help getting your startup off the ground? Consider a specialized MBA in Entrepreneurship, which offers critical management and business development experience as well as the skills entrepreneurs will need to pitch ideas and secure funding. 

7. Marketing

If marketing and advertising are more your style, consider a specialized MBA in Marketing. You'll learn how to promote products and services, design and execute marketing campaigns, and communicate with customers—skills that can be applied across marketing and sales roles at B2C and B2B companies. 

8. Operations Management

A specialized MBA in Operations Management focuses on planning, organizing, and managing production to maximize efficiency. If you're interested in supply chain management or logistics, consider this specialty. 

9. IT or Technology Management

A specialized MBA in IT or Technology Management puts MBA graduates at the cutting edge of UX, design, and the flow of information technology. If you want to manage how data moves within companies, between them, and into the world, consider this specialty.

A Human Resources Perspective

A Nice Article to Read

A Human Resources Career is Not for “Nice” People

HR 2025: 7 Critical Strategies to Prepare for the Future of HR

Five Things The HR Department Won't Tell You

50+ HR Interview Questions

What and How to write a Critical Review:

CC: https://www.monash.edu/rlo/quick-study-guides/writing-a-critical-review

Fix a USB flash drive after use by Win32 Disk Imager

This short article provides instructions on how to recover the full capacity of a USB flash drive following use with the Win32 Disk Imager software.

Fix instructions

Win32 Disk Imager is a great tool for taking an ISO disc image and writing it to a USB flash drive so that you can install an Operating System such as Linux on another PC without needing an optical drive or to waste a DVDR disc. However, one disadvantge with using this tool is that it tends to mess up the USB flash drive. If you try to reformat it using Windows or Linux chances are it will only format a portion of the drive leaving you with a much smaller capacity than you started with.

The following instructions will show you how to resolve this problem, restoring your USB Flash Drive to its former capacity.

Run CMD in Windows as an Administrator

Type: diskpart

Type: list disk

Note the number assigned to your disk and replace X in the next command with that number

Type: select disk X

Type: clean

Type: create partition primary

Type: active

Type: format fs=fat32 label="PENDRIVE"

The above command may take some time depending on the capacity of your drive

Type: assign

Type: exit

Safely eject the USB flash drive

Test it and check Properties to confirm original capacity now restored

http://www.detoxcomic.com/articles/fix-win32-disk-imager-flash-drive.html

How to Ace a Management Interview

How to Ace a Management Interview

Managers are responsible for planning strategies for marketing a business’s brand. This is a demanding position that directly impacts a company’s bottom line. A company wants to be sure that the manager they hire is going to produce results and prove to be a worthwhile investment. For this reason, an interview for this type of positions is likely to be quite rigorous. If you want to get hired as a manager, you have to make sure you’re well prepared for the interview.

Do Your Research About the Company:

Each company requires its own unique branding strategy. You can’t expect to ace an interview if you show up with a generic idea about how to market brands. It’s essential that you come prepared with detailed research about the company that’s interviewing you. This can be a grueling task if you have multiple interviews scheduled. Still, it’s important that you display a real familiarity with the particular company’s style and challenges.

You should familiarize yourself with the company’s basic financials. This will give you an idea of its marketing budget, which in turn gives you clues about what kind of strategies you might employ as a brand manager. For example, if you’re interviewing with a medium-sized company with a modest budget, you wouldn’t suggest advertising at the next Super Bowl. You also should understand the demographics of the company’s customers. Find out the age, gender, income, location and other characteristics of their target market.

Know the Competition:

Just as you should be familiar with the company that’s interviewing you, it’s important to know a little about the competition. Even if the interviewer doesn’t specifically refer to competitors, you’ll impressive him or her if you display some knowledge in this area. Try to come up with at least one idea on how you would help the company differentiate itself from a competitor.

Explain How You Would Help the Brand Grow:

Assuming you’ve done your research, you should be able to make some suggestions about how to improve the company’s brand management. In this area, you have to take into consideration the overall personality and style of the owner or CEO. While you might suggest certain modifications as a manager, you don’t want to come across as arrogant and recommend a total overhaul of their current management approach.

It’s best to take a moderate approach and look for innovative suggestions that are still within the general parameters of what they’re already doing. For example, if the company is already very active on social media, look at which platforms it favors. You might then come to the interview prepared with some ways to improve the Facebook page or LinkedIn profile.

Provide Examples of Past Results You’ve Achieved:

As with any type of interview, it’s likely that you’ll be asked to discuss what you’ve accomplished. It’s ideal if you can give examples where you helped a company increase its visibility, reputation or profits (in you Internship if you have done so). It’s important to list specific strategies that you implemented to achieve these results. Always emphasize the areas where you were able to achieve quantifiable improvements, whether in terms of profits, social media followers, customer retention, website traffic or whatever your area of focus.

Talk About Brands and Campaigns That You Admire:

One likely question that you’ll be asked at the interview is to name some high-profile brands that you admire and possibly some specific campaigns that especially impressed you. You want to be able to explain in detail what you like about these brands or campaigns. This type of question gives the company some insights into your personal style of brand management.

A variation on this question is to ask you what your dream management job might be and why. It’s fine to mention a high-profile brand but you also have to be careful about explaining why this would be your choice. If you say that it would be nice to have a virtually unlimited budget and get to travel around the world, a smaller brand might conclude that your goals are too grandiose. At the same time, don’t be too enthusiastic in your admiration for other companies. Remember that your goal is to get a position at the company for which you’re interviewing.

Establish Your Credibility as a Problem Solver:

Interviewers love to pose questions that test your problem-solving skills. They might ask for an example of how you helped another business overcome a difficult period. Or they might pose a hypothetical situation where you have to solve a branding or reputation problem. This is a good chance to illustrate your ability to diagnose a problem and come up with a solution. This is also a test of your adaptability, which sometimes entails abandoning a strategy that’s not working and trying something new.

Additional Tips to Ace Your Interview:

Keep in mind that your main focus is convincing the interviewer that you have what it takes to strengthen their brand. No matter what questions you are asked, remember to relate everything back to the contribution you intend to make with this company.

To ensure you’re well prepared, rehearse giving answers to likely questions. If possible, recruit a friend to act out the part of the interviewer. This will help you increase your confidence and refine your responses.

One caveat to keep in mind when discussing strategies that could help the brand is that you don’t want to be too specific. Otherwise you risk providing so much value in the interview that they don’t have to hire you! If you happen to get an especially brilliant insight about a possible campaign, you might want to drop a few enticing hints and hold back a little.

Find companies for which you’re a good match. Don’t try to remake your whole personality to get a job where you won’t really fit in. You’re better off focusing on companies where your experience and personality are truly a good match.

A Line Stolen from SK

There are good leaders who actively guide and bad leaders who actively misguide. 
Hence, leadership is about persuasion, presentation and people skills.

Shiv Khera

How to Make an Effective Presentation

How to Make an Effective Presentation






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MY PROFILE

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

1. Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.), in Computer Science & Engineering under Technology from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (Formerly known as West Bengal University of Technology) on “Network Security in Business Application”, 2017
2. Sciences Engineering Graduate and a Masters degree in IT from Clark University, USA with nearly 4 years 5 months of experience in Software Industry and around 13 years 8 months of experience in Education Industry.
3. Was involved in software application/web based application development for Atlas Software Technologies (Pittsburgh), General Technologies Inc. (Massachusetts), Wipro Ltd. (Calcutta).
4. Involved as an Associate Professor in teaching for Institute of Engineering and Management (Kolkata), and was Assistant Professor at National institute of Science and Technology (Berhampur).

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Best Website I found which can be used by anybody if you have hunger for 

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